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AUTHORS 




OF AMERICA 




BRIEF SKETCHES OF 


TWENTY PROMINENT AMERICAN WRITERS 


BY 


v/ 

ADELLA L. BAKER 

MAY SCHOOL, SYRACUSE, N. Y. 


ILLUSTRATED WITH 


PHOTO BLUE PORTRAITS 


The chief glory of every people arises from its authors 

—Dr. S. Johnson. 



• • 


SYRACUSE, N. Y. : 

GEO. A. MOSHER 

112 E. FAYETTE ST. 


. A p ‘V 

1st ww r * » 


A 


898 



TWO COPIES R£C £ IVFD 



Copyright 1898 
BY 

GEO. A. MOSHER. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


Louisa May Alcott. 

George Bancroft. 

William Cullen Bryant. 

Alice Cary. 

Phoebe Cary. 

James Fen ni more Cooper. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Edward Everett Hale. 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

Josiah Gilbert Holland. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
Washington Irving. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
James Russell Lowell. 

John Lothrop Motley. 

William Hickling Prescott. 
Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

Henry David Thoreau. 

Bayard Taylor. 

John Greenleaf Whittier. 

















Louisa May Alcott 


MISS ALCOTT, Interpreter of Childhood. 
Nov. 29, 1832 — Mar. 6, 1888. 


Louisa May Alcott was the second child of Amos 
Bronson and Abba May Alcott. She was born to a 
heritage of plain living and high thinking. Her 
education was conducted according to her father’s 
theories. At fifteen she began to feel the pressure 
of thoughts and duties which made life a solemn 
matter. While she herself calls this the “sentimental 
period,” it was the time when home necessities 
called into action all her energies. She developed 
strong dramatic powers and was anxious to go on the 
stage, but was dissuaded by her mother. Hers was 
a truly religious soul. Her father called her “ Duty’s 
faithful child.” During these early struggles she 
was doubly blessed in the home love and in the friend- 
ship and counsel of Mr. Emerson. 

Miss Alcott received five dollars for her first story, 
written at Concord, when she was sixteen. In 1843 
she came under the influence of the transcendental- 
ists, but had little sympathy with the movement. 
Her story of Transcendental Wild Oats gave the facts 
concerning the experiments at Fruitlands with min- 
gled pathos and humor. 


Patriotic zeal and love of active service led Miss 
Alcott to join the corps of nurses during the Civil 
War. Severe illness compelled her to resign after 
six weeks’ duty. Her Hospital Sketches were fresh 
and original, and told what people were longing to 
know. 

Miss Alcott’s literary work and her life were one. 
She was, pre-eminently, a writer of children’s stories, 
and Little Women is her masterpiece. In giving to 
the world this simple and natural picture of New 
England life, as she knew it and lived it, she blessed 
all girlhood days with the secrets of true love and 
wholesome delights. 

Little Women; Little Men; Old-Fashioned Girl; Eight 
Cousins; A Rose in Bloom; Under the Lilacs. 



6 


BANCROFT, “The Affluent Man.” 
Oct. 3, 1800— Jan. 17, 1891. 


George Bancroft was born at Worcester, Mass. 
He was ready to enter college at the very early age 
of ten, and was graduated with honors from Harvard 
in 1817. He then studied two years in Gottingen. 
There he came under the personal influence of 
Heeren. That eminent teacher directed him toward 
history as a vocation. After finishing his work at 
Gottingen he spent a year on the continent and met 
many distinguished people. 

While teaching in Harvard, Mr. Bancroft con- 
tributed many articles to magazines, and occasionally 
preached. He became greatly interested in politics 
and held various offices under the democratic party. 
In 1846 he was appointed Minister to Great Britain. 
Afterward he represented the United States at Berlin. 
On his return in 1874, he made his home in Wash- 
ington. 

While he achieved success in public life, Mr. Ban- 
croft’s fame rests chiefly upon his great History of 
the United States. The first volume was published 
in 1834, and the last, exactly fifty years later. How 
painstaking and thorough he was, these dates testify. 


7 



George Bancroft. 





At Gottingen he had followed the scientific method 
of historical study; and at Berlin he obtained access 
to original sources which other Americans had been 
unable to consult. While his history is somewhat 
stiff and heavy in style, it is the standard authority 
on the subject. 

Many widely differing elements entered into Mr. 
Bancroft’s character. His long life was passed in an 
epoch-making period and fulfilled his mother’s wish 
that it might be affluent; “ ad fluo , always a little 
more coming in than going out.” 

So freely did he receive of gifts, mental and spirit- 
ual, and so freely did he give to the world of the 
treasures of his heart and life as to stand as one of 
the most representative men of his time. 


9 



William Cullen Bryant. 


BRYANT, Father of American Song. 
Nov. 3, 1794 — Jan. J2, J878. 


William Cullen Bryant was born in Hampshire 
Co., Mass. When he was but a lad he used to pray 
for the gift of poetic genius. His father recognized 
his natural ability and trained him in verse making, 
with Pope as a model. Some of his best known 
poems were published in early life. He was but nine- 
teen when Thanatopsis appeared. This was a new 
birth in American poetry and Bryant was the prophet 
of the new and true. 

Our poet studied in Williams College, read law 
and practiced in western Massachusetts. 

When he yielded to the attractions of a literary 
career he became the editor of the New York Evening 
Post. To one whose soul longed for the solitudes of 
nature this was like being 

“Forced to drudge for the dregs of men, 

And scrawl strange words with the barbarous pen.’’ 

Yet by the high standards that he set for himself 
and for the staff of the Post, Mr. Bryant did much to 
raise the character of the American press. Among 
the most pleasing of his writings are his Letters of 
a Traveller , sent to the Post during his visits to 


Europe. Against the wiles of slavery his voice and 
pen were powers. 

It is as the meditative poet of nature that we best 
know Mr. Bryant. He loved to sing of autumn and 
to paint the wild flowers. Six of these children of 
the forest have each a poem devoted to them. While 
his life and work were part of the great city, and 
while he gave himself in full measure to its demands 
upon him, he was most at home with nature. 

“Here, then, we will leave him, with tender 
reverence for the father of our song, with grateful 
homage to the spotless and faithful citizen, with affec- 
tionate admiration for the simple and upright man/' 


ALICE CARY, “The Singer/’ 

April 26, 1820 — Feb. 12. 1871. 

Robert Cary, the father of Alice and Phoebe, was 
one of the first settlers near Cincinnati, and it was in 
the little pioneer home that the daughters were born. 
The family was of New England origin, and the 
father was a man of superior intelligence and a deeply 
religious nature. Alice had very limited educational 
advantages. The home contained but few books, 
chief among them being the Bible, the Hymn Book 
and Pope’s Essays. 

In 1852 the sisters moved to New York, and their 
home life in the great city is one secret of their suc- 
cess. In the twenty years Alice produced eleven 
volumes, every thought in which was wrought out 
of her own being, and many of which were purified 
by her own suffering. As an artist in literature Alice 
suffered from lack of early training. While she had 
but imperfect command of her powers, her poetry is 
full of natural grace and her prose is remarkable for 
its descriptions of domestic life and its realistic char- 
acters. She was a good interpreter of the secrets of 
nature and one of the finest ballad writers in America. 

The woman was far more than the song. The 

















Alice Cary 





Phoebe Cary 


basis of her character was a passion for justice. She 
was full of plans to help, and this unselfish spirit re- 
mained with her to the end, by force “of that strong 
will that conquered pain.” 


“God giveth quietness at last ! 

The common way that all have passed, 
She went, with mortal yearnings fond, 
To fuller life and love beyond.” 


s 


PHOEBE CARY, Wise and Witty* 

Sept* 4, \ 824— July 31, J87J* 

So closely interwoven were the lives of the Cary 
sisters that it impossible to write separately of either. 
Each was the counterpart of the other. Phoebe was 
queen of the needle, while Alice was a born house- 
keeper. Both were fond of children, but Phoebe en- 
joyed them as friends and comrades, while Alice loved 
them with the true mother-heart. Phoebe was witty 
and gay, while Alice was pensive and tender. Phoebe 
had great distrust of her own powers and lacked a 
compelling will, while nothing ever daunted Alice. 
For this reason Phoebe wrote much less than Alice. 

No singer was ever more thoroughly identified 
with her own songs than was Phoebe Cary. She has 
been called the wittiest woman in America, but her 
wit left no sting behind the laughter which it evoked. 
This gift lent a charm to her conversation and gave 
variety and spirit to her writing. “ She was the most 
literal of beings; this, with a keen sense of the ludi- 
crous, made her a queen of parodists.” 

But Phoebe Cary will be remembered longest by 
her religious poems, which are full of faith, hope and 
love. First among these is “ Nearer Home,” written 


17 


when she was but eighteen, yet voicing the “sweetly 
solemn thought ” that comes to every heart. 

When Alice died, Phoebe missed the hearty sym- 
pathy that had been her chief inspiration, and seemed 
unable to set herself at any literary task. She said 
of Alice, “ Wherever she is, I am sure she wants me 
now.” And the separation was very short. “They 
were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their 
death they were not divided.” 


iS 


COOPER, People's Novelist. 
Sept. 15, 1789 — Sept. 14, 1851. 


James Fennimore Cooper was born in Burlington, 
New Jersey. In 1790, his father settled near Otsego 
Lake, New York, and founded the village of Coopers- 
town. In 1796 he built Otsego Hall, the most pre- 
tentious dwelling in that part of the State. Upon 
the lad who grew up in this home the early environ- 
ment had a great influence. The majesty of the 
forests and other scenes of nature made an indelible 
impression on his imagination. Young Cooper was 
educated at Yale and then entered the navy, but after 
three years’ service he resigned. For some time he 
lived in New York and published several volumes. 

After a long sojourn abroad the people’s novelist 
settled at Cooperstown. His home life was a source 
of peace and happiness. His family exhibited that 
devotion never called forth save by strong natures. 
He was a man of deep religious feeling, but with it 
there was a narrowness of the Puritan type which he 
so loudly decried. As he advanced in years his re- 
ligious convictions grew stronger, and shortly before 
his death he was baptized. 

Critics count Leatherstocking the only great orig- 


19 




James Fennimore Cooper. 





inal character in American fiction. As a writer, 
Cooper had many faults of style, but the influence of 
his words is always healthy. The fearlessness and 
truthfulness of his nature appear constantly. His 
aggressive patriotism and his severe criticisms of 
what was weak in American life made him unpop- 
ular at home and abroad. But his foibles have been 
forgotten and his readers will declare that “America 
counts on the roll of her men of letters the name of 
no one who writes from purer patriotism or loftier 
principle. ” 

The Leather-stocking 'Tales; The Spy; The Pilot; The 
Red Rover. 




















Ralph Waldo Emerson 




EMERSON, Apostle of Helpfulness. 
May 25, 1803— April 27, 1882. 


Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston. At 
the age of fourteen he entered Harvard. During a 
large part of his college life he taught in his brother’s 
school. As he was the descendant of eight gener- 
ations of ministers, it was natural that he should fol- 
low in their footsteps. Owing to a change in his 
theological views he resigned his pastorate after a 
few years and went abroad. On his return he lec- 
tured and edited a literary magazine called the Dial. 
The strength and beauty of his thought and his felic- 
itous choice of words made him the perfection of a 
lyceum lecturer. 

His first published volume was Nature , of which 
only five hundred copies were sold in twelve years. 
Of his poems the most widely known are the Concord 
Hymn, written at the completion of the Battle Mon- 
ument, and the Boston Hymn, written on the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation. 

Mr. Emerson’s work cannot be measured by the 
regulation standards of authorship. One great critic 
likened his style to the “ shooting forth of stones from 
a sack.” Upon hearing this Whittier declared they 


were all precious stones. As specimens of his genius 
these may be quoted: 

“ Write it on vour heart that everv dav is the best 

« m * 

day in the year." 

“Good nature is better than tomahawks." 

“ The scholar must be a bringer of hope. " 

Mr. Emerson's religion was central to all his 
work. He exemplified his own saying that “char- 
acter is nature in its highest form." He became the 
head of the Concord school of mystical phiiosophv, 
but proved himself to be at once a seer of visions and 
a man of practical common sense. He believed that 
it is the mission of the poet to invigorate the soul, 
and this prayer for his country, quoted from his last 
published work, is a fitting close to his appeals for 
higher living: 

“Here let there be what the earth waits for — 
exalted manhood. " 

Representative Men; English Traits ; Conduct of Life; 
Society and Solitude. 


21 


HALE, Great Heart* 
Barn April 3, 1822. 


There can be no doubt that Dr. Edward Everett 

Hale is the most versatile man of his time. One 

seeking an explanation of the diversity of his gifts 

would find two causes in hereditv and earlv environ- 

* * 

ment. He has paid hearty tribute to these in A Xew 
England Boyhood. But the secret of his power lies 
deeper than these influences. It is disclosed in this 
theorv of a pastor's work which Dr. Hale has given: 
“ The man who is to preach to men of arfairs must 
live amone them, read what thev read, and, to a cer- 
tain extent, know what they know. He must do 
active work for the improvement of the world around 
him.” 

So thoroughly has Dr. Hale put in practice his 
theorv that there is no side of life which he has nGt 
touched. His tales of travel and adventure are the 
delieht of his bov admirers. As one of the Chautau- 
qua Councilors he has guided the reading of that 
great armv of students and has exerted a formative 
influence on American scholarship. To arouse our 
patriotism he has given us numerous histories and 
the great object lesson of A Man Without a Country. 






How many have been given a motive for Christian 
work and an inspiration to service by reading In His 
Name , If Jesus Came to Boston , and Ten Times One 
is Ten ! 

We may count Dr. Hale’s fifty volumes and speak 
of his editorial work, but we shall not be able to cal- 
culate the extent of his influence. In the vigor of 
his youthful old age he still is holding forth the word 
of life to his Boston congregation, while with his 
ready pen he summons his readers to duty in the 
spirit of his rallying cry, — “Look up and not down, 
look forward and not back, look out and not in, and 
lend a hand ! ” 


27 




Nat HAN I EL 1 1 A WT HORNE. 


HAWTHORNE, ** New England's Chaucer/' 
July 4, 1804— May J9, 1864. 


Nathaniel Hawthorne was born at Salem. He 
was of staunch Puritan descent, the son of a sea cap- 
tain. He early developed a taste for books, yet con- 
fessed that, when a lad, he had a grievous disinclina- 
tion to go to school. At seventeen he entered Bow- 
doin College. He afterward declared that he was an 
idle student, negligent of rules and “musing his own 
fancies. ” 

In his early literary work Hawthorne met with 
many discouragements. “He piped to the world 
and it did not dance. He wept to it and it did not 
mourn.” It was not until 1837 that he published 
Tzvice-Told Tales. His college friend, President 
Pierce, appointed Hawthorne Consul at Liverpool. 
At the close of his term of office he visited Italy and 
then wrote The Marble Faun. In 1841 he united 
with others in the experiment at Brook Farm. The 
only thing he gained there was the foundation for the 
Blithedale Romance , published ten years later. It 
was in 1850 that there appeared that most original of 
novels and most distinguished work of American 
prose fiction, The Scarlet Letter. 


29 


Much of Hawthorne’s early writing is plainly the 
work of a recluse, the product of those fancies mused 
upon in his youth. His humor was quiet and fine, 
but less genial than Irving’s. He was strongly drawn 
toward types and symbols. His favorite themes 
were the workings of conscience and the hidden 
romance in early New England experiences. His 
treatment of these subjects and the simple, unassum- 
ing life of which he was a part, and of which he wrote 
so observingly, proclaim him 

“A scholar of rare worth ; 

The gentlest man that kindly nature drew.” 

Mosses from a7i old Manse ; The House of the Seven 
Gables; Our Old Home . 




30 




HOLLAND, Man of Heart. 
July 24, J8J9. — Oct. 12, 1881. 


Josiah Gilbert Holland was born in Hampshire 
Co., Mass. His ancestors were among the early set- 
tlers of Dorchester. His education was that afforded 
by the country school. He finally decided to study 
medicine, but after practicing only three years aban- 
doned the profession to become a teacher. In 1848 
he was called to Vicksburg, Miss., to organize a sys- 
tem of public schools. None may say how much of 
his great success was due to his authority to indict 
corporal punishment. During the Civil War he used 
to declare facetiously that he had whipped more reb- 
els than any man in America. 

Dr. Holland’s literary life dates from his connec- 
tion with The Springfield Republican in i860. For it 
he wrote serial papers that met with high approval. 
He was the first editor of Scribner's Magazine , and 
his intelligent work contributed largely to its success. 
Dr. Holland published thirty-seven volumes. It is a 
remarkable fact that their popularity was not affected 
by their severe criticism from a literary standpoint. 
This may be explained by the fact that they were 
written with a high moral purpose, from heart to 



Josiah Gilbert Holland 


heart. The novels are his best and most artistic 
works. The poems often lack smoothness and finish, 
but are filled with fine sentiment. The ‘‘Titcomb” 
series contain noble lessons of life and have a truly 
religious tone. They made his pseudonym a house- 
hold word. 

Dr. Holland was a man of great moral strength 
and taught that such are the chief support of any 
nation. Out of its need the world is evermore offer- 
ing this petition which was his prayer for his country : 

“ God give us men ! A time like this demands 

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands.” 

Arthur Bonnicastle ; Sevenoaks ; Bitter Sweet; Mis- 
tress of the M arise. 


33 





HOLMES, Genial Humorist. 

Aug. 29, 1809— Oct. 7, 1894. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, 
Mass. His youth was that of a happy child in a genial 
home. He was graduated from Harvard College 
in 1829. Believing that “ a literary man should have 
a regular calling,” he decided to become a physician. 
He devoted himself to his profession, yet found 
much time for writing. 

When the Autocrat at the Breakfast Tabic was 
begun in the Atlantic Monthly , Dr. Holmes showed 
his power and won his name as a prose writer. “His 
shrewd sayings are bright with native metaphor, and 
he was a proverb maker whose words have wings.” 

Dr. Holmes was a typical university poet and de- 
lighted to pay his tribute of verse to his alma mater. 
His ability to write well to order made him a great 
“occasional” poet whose services were often in de- 
mand for society verse, commemorative address or 
patriotic ode. 

While the Living Temple and the Chambered Nau- 
tilus are the highest expressions of his poetic power, 
it is as a humorous writer that Dr. Holmes is best 
known. He taught his countrymen that ‘ ‘pathos is an 


35 


equal part of true humor.” Of the circle of six poet 
friends he lived to be 

“The last leaf on the tree.” 

When we think of him, the smile, which he per- 
mitted us, must strive for mastery with the tear 
which is our hearts’ tribute to this young old man 
whose youth was renewed by the fountain of humor 
which flowed from his genial soul to bless the world. 

Elsie Venner ; Over the Teacups ; Poet at the Breakfast 
7 able; Professor at the Breakfast Table. 


36 


IRVING, “Prince of American Letters/' 

April 3, 1 783— Nov. 28, 1859. 

Washington Irving was of Scotch descent and 
was born in New York City. His early manhood 
was sorrowed by the death of the lady to whom he 
was engaged, and he never married. He suffered re- 
verses in business, but gained many honors in litera- 
ture and in diplomatic circles. In 1804 he went to 
Europe for his health. He was most fortunate in the 
acquaintances which he formed and in the scenes in 
the world’s drama which he saw enacted. 

In 1809 Irving published the History of Nezv York 
by Diedrich Knickerbocker , and this gave him first rank 
as a writer. In 1829 he became secretary of the 
American legation in London, and in the next year 
received one of the gold medals of the Royal Society 
of Literature. 

On the nomination of Webster, Irving was ap- 
pointed Minister to Spain for four years, i 842-’46. 
To his life in this classic land of poetry and romance 
we are indebted for his Tales of a Traveller , the 
Conquest of Granada and the Alhambra. The Alham- 
bra is the most pleasing of his works, while his Life 
of Goldsmith is one of the most delightful biographies 
ever published. 


37 



Washington Irving 






It was fitting that Irving, who thanked God that 
he was born upon the banks of the Hudson, should 
immortalize the region in legend and story, and that his 
patriotism should find expression in a Life of Wash- 
ington. “As historian, essayist, traveller, satirist, 
humorist and a charming teller of stories that have 
given a romantic interest to American scenes, he has 
no compeer.” 


39 



Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 


LONGFELLOW, Poet of the Household. 
Feb. 27, 1807— March 24, 1882. 


Henry Wadsworth Long-fellow was born in Port- 
land, Maine, “the city by the sea.” He was grad- 
uated from Bowdoin College in 1825, and then studied 
for three years in Europe. On his return he taught 
in Bowdoin until 1834, when he was invited to take 
the chair of Modern Languages in Harvard U niversity. 
His home in Cambridge was the historic house which 
had been Washington’s headquarters. 

The range of his subjects is remarkable. He has 
given us Indian legend and historic incident. He 
has interpreted the voices of nature and revealed to 
us “the magic of the sea.” 

His best known prose work is Hyperion , a romance 
written when hope had set because “the friend of his 
youth was dead,” yet bearing on its title page this 
strong word of life: “Look not mournfully into the 
Past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the 
Present. Go forth to meet the shadowy Future with- 
out fear, and with a manly heart.” 

By his gift of felicitous translation, Mr. Long- 
fellow unlocked for us the literary treasures of other 


41 


lands. His greatest achievement in this line was his 
version of Dante’s Divine Comedy , made in 1861. 

Mr. Longfellow took great pride in the fact that 
so many of his poems had found places in the school 
readers. His gratification would be greater could he 
know how the latter-day teaching makes them the 
commentary on history and geography and incor- 
porates them into the very life of this second genera- 
tion of his lovers. 

Truly, the common people have heard him gladly, 
and his desire has been granted: 

“ I hope, as no unwelcome guest, 

At your warm fireside, when the lamps are lighted, 

To have my place reserved among the rest, 

Nor stand as one unsought and uninvited ! ” 


42 




LOWELL, u Our Ablest Critic.” 

Feb. 22, 1819 — Aug. 12, 1891. 

James Russell Lowell’s home was at “Elm- 
wood,” Cambridge, Mass. He was graduated from 
Harvard College in 1838, studied law and opened an 
office in Boston. In 1855 he was appointed Professor 
of Belles Lettres at Harvard, and the duties of that 
position, together with editorial and platform work, 
made his life a busy one. In 1877 he was selected 
as Minister to Spain, and in 1880 was transferred to 
England. In these relations he was highly approved. 

Mr. Lowell’s patriotic spirit was aroused by the 
Mexican war, and his wit found full play in the 
famous Biglozv Papers . These are his most original 
contributions to American literature and rank as the 
best political satires in the language. They had a 
moral influence hard to appreciate now. They re- 
vealed the author to himself as well as to the world. 

Mr, Lowell’s poems of nature are remarkable for 
the notes of joy sounding through them. His ten- 
derest loves are the wild flowers, the birds and trees. 

As a critic Mr. Lowell taught much by analogy. 
He expressed his political and moral convictions 
in verse, while his literary criticisms and sketches of 


43 







James Russell Lowell. 



travel were put in prose. Like Mr. Emerson, he had 
an epigrammatic style that gave us a long list of 
happy quotations. How often we use these: 

“ New times demand new measures and new men.” 

“They are slaves who dare not be 
• In the right with two or three.” 

In all his writings, as poet, critic or patriot, “it 
is the man behind the words that give them value.” 
No American author has united in finer proportions 
critical acumen, manly strength, lofty thought and 
moral nobility. 

My Garden Acquaintance ; My Study Windows ; 
Shakespeare Once More. 


45 









John Lothrop Motley 



MOTLEY, Historian and Diplomat* 

April 15, 1814— May 29, 1877. 

John Lothrop Motley was born in Dorchester, 
Mass. His parents were people of culture and gave 
careful attention to the education of their children. 
John was a delicate boy not fond of out-door sports, 
but a lover of books. At the age of thirteen he en- 
tered Harvard, but spent his time largely in general 
reading and in verse making. After his graduation 
he studied in Berlin and Gottingen. During his life 
in Germany he became the close friend of Bismarck, 
and the friendship continued throughout his life. 

Like others of our historians, Motley began by 
writing contributions to imaginative literature. Sev- 
eral articles published in the North American Review 
showed the field in which his power lay. No doubt 
he was attracted to Dutch history because the strug- 
gles of that brave people were akin to those of the 

American Colonies. In 1856 the Rise of the Dutch 

. / 

Republic was published, in 1868 the History of the 
United Netherlands , and in 1874 the Life of John of 
Barneveld . This last is called the most classical of 
Motley’s productions. As a writer he excelled in the 
analysis of great historic characters. One has said 

47 




that “to the lover of liberty, Holland is the Holy 
Land of Europe.” If this is true, we may write John 
Lothrop Motley as the chronicler of its crusades 
against tyranny. 

Our great historian died in Dorsetshire, lamented 
by his own countrymen and by kindred souls of all 
lands. “ His name belongs to no single country and 
to no single age; as a statesman, diplomatist and 
patriot, he belongs to America; as a scholar, to the 
world of letters ; as a historian, all ages will claim 
him in the future.” 


PRESCOTT, Conqueror of Circumstances, 

May 4, 1796— fan, 28, 1859, 

William Hickling Prescott was born in Salem, 
Mass. His grandfather was a general in the War of 
the Revolution, and his father was a lawyer of means 
and culture. William was carefully educated. In 
his boyhood he showed his historical bias by his fond- 
ness for mimic warfare and his facility in relating 
stories. In 1811 he entered Harvard. Early in his 
college life he lost the sight of an eye, but still made 
a success of his course in the classics and literature. 

After graduation he went abroad for his health, 
but his impaired sight prevented any study. It was 
his custom to walk five miles a day, and, as he walked, 
to compose whole paragraphs which he retained in 
his mind for future dictation. 

Upon his return to America, Prescott resolved to 
devote himself to literature. Most men would have 
considered the difficulties too great to be overcome, 
but when he resolved to “embrace the gift of the 
Spanish subject,” he began a system of preparation 
singularly thorough. Dependent upon the eyes and 
hands of others, he carefully trained readers and 
amanuenses, and gave five hours a day to study. 


49 





When the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella was 
published in Boston it was pronounced a success. 
It elevated Prescott to the first rank of historians and 
determined the nature of his future work. Following 
it appeared the Conquest of Mexico and the Conquest 
of Peru. 

These volumes are tributes alike to Prescott’s 
methodical habits, undaunted perseverance, cheerful 
humor, and to the happy, sympathetic atmosphere of 
his home. As a writer his power lay in his broad 
arrangement of materials and in his vivid narration 
of incident. “In the transparent simplicity and un- 
dimmed beauty and candor of his style, we read the 
endearing qualities of his soul.” 


5 r 







Harriet Beecher Stowe 




MRS. STOWE, Freedom's Heroine. 
June 14, J8J2— July 1,1896. 


Harriet Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecti- 
cut. When she was four years old she went to live 
with an aunt who gave her thorough training in 
needle-work, the catechism and solid religious works. 
Furtively she enjoyed Arabian Nights , but her early 
love for books was nurtured chiefly by Scott’s poetry. 
At the age of eleven she wrote a composition on the 
question, “Can the Immortality of the Soul be Proved 
by the light of Nature?” She afterward declared 
that the moment when her father expressed his appro- 
bation was the proudest of her life. Her first pen 
earnings came through a magazine story for which 
she received fifty dollars. 

When she was twenty-one, Harriet Beecher mar- 
ried Rev. Calvin Stowe and made her home in Cin- 
cinnati. During her residence on this border line of 
slave territory she had burned into her soul those 
scenes of sorrow that found expression in her master- 
piece. A prominent historian counts the publication 
of Uncle Tonis Cabin in 1852 as one of the chief 
events in the administration of Taylor and Fillmore. 
It first appeared as a serial in The National Era _ 


/ 


53 


This wonderful story has been translated into several 
foreign languages, and, next to the Bible, is the most 
widely read of the world’s great books. Mrs. Stowe 
declared that God wrote it and that she merely did 
his dictation. No other theory so well accounts for 
its marvellous power and vitality. 

After a visit to Europe Mrs. Stowe wrote some 
sketches of travel and several novels and essays on 
domestic and social topics. Each of these contain 
“words of purpose,” but the best known is The Min- 
ister s Wooing , a story of New England life of great 
literary excellence. 

Thus she lived and wrought; a mother of most 
devoted type; a philanthropist whose zeal knew no 
flagging; a writer ordained by God. 

Dred: A Tale of the Dismal Swamp; Pearl of Orrs 
Island; My Wife and I; We and our Neighbors . 


54 


1 


THOREAU, Poet-Naturalist. 
July \2 y 1817 — May 6, 1862. 


Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Mass. 
Although his family were in humble circumstances, 
its members were held in esteem in the community. 
Thoreau was graduated from Harvard in 1837. For 
ten years he supported himself, his mother and sisters 
by different kinds of manual labor. Chief amone 
these were pencil making and surveying, but he had 
a mechanical knack that enabled him to adapt him- 
self to any need. In 1838 Thoreau gave his first 
lecture before the Concord Lyceum, and from that 
date divided his time between lecturing and writing. 

Never was a true soul more misunderstood. Be- 
cause he called men “vulgar fellows,” and lived as a 
recluse in a hut of his own making, he was held to be 
unsocial in disposition and lacking in filial regard. 
Yet the letters of his sisters and friends show his 
love for his family and the strength of his friendships, 
calling him “a physician to the wounds of any soul.” 
He lived simply so as to have the more time for study, 
and he sought the seclusion of Walden Woods to 
learn those secrets of nature which he was to reveal 
to the world. 

55 




> > 
> * > 



Henry David Thoreau. 










v » 







“ In the man the nature lies 
Of woods so green 
And lakes so sheen, 

And hermitages edged between. ” 


Because he never went to church Thoreau was 
called an unbeliever, but those who understood him 
best knew him to be sincerely religious. 

But two of his books appeared in his lifetime and 
they were not successful. Now the reading world 
acknowledges that he realized his aspiration to write 
true, strong sentences that should be not mere repe- 
tition, but creation. 

Walden was once a place of ill repute but he made 
it the most romantic spot near Concord. Truly could 
it be said of him : 

“Concord is his monument, covered with suitable 
inscriptions by his own hand.” 

A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers; Walden; 
Excursions in Field and Forest. 


57 





Bayard Taylor 





TAYLOR, Poet -T raveller. 

Jan. \\ y J825— Dec. 19, 1878. 

Bayard Taylor was of Quaker descent and was 
born at Kennett Square, Pa. As a lad he was on 
intimate terms with nature, able to “name all the 
birds without a gun.” In spite of fondness for out- 
door life, he tired of the farm and learned the print- 
er’s trade. When he was nineteen he published a 
small volume of poems and began a course in the 
university of the world. 

Mr. Taylor stood half-way between two genera- 
tions of American writers. He was a man of great 
versatility and touched life at varied points. Thirty 
of his best years were devoted to journalism. As a 
poet-traveller he gave us eleven volumes, from Views 
Afoot , published in 1846, to Egypt and Iceland, which 
appeared in 1874. 

“ He brought us wonders of the new and old, 

We shared all clinjes with him.” 

To Bayard Taylor was given the honor of writing 
the National Ode, which he read in Independence 
Hall, July 4, 1876. But the crowning literary work 
of his life was the translation of Faust , made in the 
original meters and remarkable for its sympathetic 
spirit and fidelity to the text. 
t - 59 


Mr. Taylor died in Berlin soon after his appoint- 
ment as United States Minister to Germany. He 
died in his prime with much before him and much 
accomplished. His great heart and broad sympathies 
made him a man of high ideals. These find expres- 
sion in his last poem : 

“ I am a voice, and cannot more be still 

Than some high tree that takes the whirlwind’s stress 
Upon the summit of a lonely hill.” 

I 'lews Afoot; Byways of Europe; The Story of Ken- 

nett. 


WHITTIER, Prophet of Freedom. 
Dec. \7 y \ 807— Sept. 7, 1892. 


John Greenleaf Whitter was born in an old farm- 
house near Haverhill, Mass. He entered into an 
inheritance of hard work, yet one of much happiness 
in simple pleasures. He received little schooling 
and had few books. The Bible became his univer- 
sity. When he was fourteen a copy of Burns’s poems 
not only aroused the rhyming faculty, but also taught 
him that the abode of true poetic material is in the 
common heart and the common life. He began 
to send his contributions to Wm. Lloyd Garrison. 
Through Mr. Garrison’s influence young Whittier was 
encouraged to educate himself, working his way as 
many others have done. 

Our poet put aside ambition to give his heart to 
the anti-slavery movement. The war hymns of this 
man of peace form the only Puritan strain in Ameri- 
can poetry. Some of them are prayers to God, some 
are words of inspiration to individual leaders, some 
are trumpet calls arousing the public to duty. It is 
no wonder that, when the Union troops captured 
Richmond, the key to the slave pen was sent to this 
hermit poet who had voiced “a hate of tyranny in- 

61 






John Greenleaf Whittier 


tense.” As a writer of personal tributes he was 

i 

happily gifted. In his portrayal of the men we may 
see their era in true perspective. 

As an interpreter of New England life and history, 
Mr Whittier had no equal, and he became the ballad 
writer of America. He was a close observer and 
lover of nature, and, unable to travel abroad, dis- 
covered all her varied forms in the familiar home 
scenery. 

“The heavens are glassed in Merrimack, 

What more can Jordan mirror back ? ” 

While he sang of freedom and nature the Hermit 
of Amesbury was deeply religious, and his poems of 
the inner life uplift and strengthen. 

“ That song shall swell from shore to shore, 

One hope, one faith, one love, restore 
The seamless robe that Jesus wore.” 




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